I just bought Roy Rogers' intstrucional DVD and while watching him play I noticed that he doesn't seem to use his remaining fingers to mute the strings behind the slide. When I play I usually have the slide on my ring finger and my index and middle fingers mute the strings but I'd like to start using my pinky so I can have more freedom like Roy. How is he able to avoid unwanted noise from behind the slide? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

No no I'm not talking about the cowboy. I mean Roy Rogers the crazy good slide guitarist. Search for him on youtube. You might have to put "slide guitar" in the search with his name or else you will get the cowboy. He's one of the best slide guitar players I've ever seen.

I don't have the DVD, but this makes it look like he's muting with the heel/little finger of the picking hand. He's also playing with a pick, which takes away the possibility of muting with unused picking fingers. For maximum freedom on slide I recommend fingerpicking w/slide on pinky, an approach that leaves the most digits free to do more stuff as you grow as a player.

"You can't write a chord ugly enough to say what you want to say sometimes, so you have to rely on a giraffe filled with whipped cream." - Frank Zappa

Do a search for Kirk Lorange on youtube. He plays slide with his pinky and has has a great sound. He also has the planetalk and slide courses. He uses the rest of the fingers of the left hand to fret in between notes so there is a lot of freedom.

I've played with the slide on my pinky for years. The best way to get rid of the bar noise is not through right hand palm muting, but letting my left hand fingers stay in contact with the strings behind the slide. If you are trying to fret behind the slide, nothing changes, you just fret the note(s) that you want to play. i've included a link to a video of my doing just that. You might find it helpful. https://youtu.be/WsaYp5g7ZXg